Server topologies

Topology diagrams help you visualize different configurations that you can set up to support various user and system load requirements. The topology diagrams are representative of basic configurations.

The single-server topology illustrates a simple installation for demonstration, trying the product out, or development environment purposes. The stand-alone topology illustrates a distributed configuration. Clustered topologies illustrate more robust and load intensive hardware configurations and IBM® Web Content Manager topologies illustrate how different hardware configuration support various authoring and system load requirements. To increase capacity and availability, multiple portal servers can be clustered with IBM WebSphere® Application Server Network Deployment, where the portals share a common configuration and load is distributed evenly across all cluster instances. The high availability and failover topology illustrates WebSphere Portal in a more complex production environment.

Tip: To increase performance and throughput in all of these topologies, see "Increasing the number of servant regions".

Restriction: The serverName is hardcoded to WebSphere Portal. The serverName cannot be changed in a stand-alone environment. If you do change it, the ConfigEngine scripts do not work. For a clustered environment, see Technote 1370392 for options on replacing the WebSphere Portal JVM.

Single-server topology
A single instance of IBM WebSphere Portal provides a fully functional application server and a Web site that is capable of serving a medium to small user community. Initially, a single instance is configured to use an internal database based on the default database.
Stand-alone server topology
The stand-alone scenario is different from the single-server since the database server, LDAP server, and Web server software are installed on different physical servers than the IBM WebSphere Portal. This configuration enables you to distribute the software in your network and therefore distribute the processing load.
Clustered servers topology
To increase capacity and availability, multiple portal servers can be clustered using IBM WebSphere Application Server Network Deployment, where the portals share a common configuration and load is distributed evenly across all cluster instances.
Portal farm topology
A portal farm topology has a series of identically configured, stand-alone server instances. Server farms offer a simple way to build and maintain a highly scalable, highly available server environment.
Single-server topology for Web Content Manager
Organizations that only need a small web site or intranet site could implement a single server topology for IBM Web Content Manager. In a single server configuration, authoring and delivery occur on the same server. This configuration is not recommended for organizations that need a larger Web site or intranet site.
Dual-server configuration for Web Content Manager
Organizations that need a large website with heavy traffic or that have multiple users authoring content should implement a dual-server configuration. In a dual-server configuration authoring is conducted on one server, or server cluster, and content is delivered to a different server, or server cluster. Authors access and work on the authoring server while website users access the delivery server. This option reduces the load on each server and allows you to locate your authoring environment behind a firewall.
Staging-server topology for Web Content Manager
If you need to deliver large complex web sites with a large number of site users and content creator, implement a staging server configuration. Implementing a staging server provides an environment for checking for accuracy, issues with the design, and performance. With a staging server configuration authoring, staging and delivery are separated onto different servers. The staging environment can be used for testing or to allow changes from the authoring environment to accumulate prior to syndicating the changes to the delivery environment in a single batch.

Parent topic: Planning to install WebSphere Portal

Related information

Increasing the number of servant regions